News-Antique.com - Oct 23,2009 - The rule is...don't fall in love with your product!!! But I'm having a bad time with that at the moment.

On a recent English buying trip we acquired a collection of antique Wedgwood jasper dip biscuit barrels or biscuit jars and I absolutely LOVE them! The biscuit jars are dark blue jasper or jasperware with applied white jasper classical motifs. The biscuit jasrs have silver plated or EPNS fittings, some quite fancy and all are marked. There are several different shapes. Several are pictured in Michael Helman's book Wedgwood Jasper Ware.

The biscuit jars date from 1872 in to the 1930s and have a variety of scenes including Sacrifice Figures, Peace And Ceres, Offering To Peace, Woman and Children and Woman With Cherubs. There is one light blue jasper dip biscuit barrel with Offering To Peace dating 1880-1891.

The process of making jasper ware items is fascinating and we have loved watching the skilled craftsman at work on our many visits to the Wedgwood pottery in Barlaston, Stoke-On-Trent England. The jasper dip was made extensively until the 1930s but is no longer made except for special orders and occasions. The white clay is formed in to the shape of the item and then after bisque firing the item is dipped into a colored liquid clay slip to add the exterior colored layer. The whit jasper decorations are then painstakingly added by the artists. The skill needed is extreme as the applied jasper clay figures are extremely thin and break easily. The item is then fired and glazed. Many are scrapped because the applied figures don't make it through the final firing processes.

We are thrilled to have found the collection and hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

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